Take a Hike: Lizard Wash

ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK  Nothing seems more striking than the bright fuchsia-colored blooms of a beavertail cactus in spring at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

They are among the largest blooms in the desert and shockingly pink; and they are a bit precious, unlike the more prolific cholla or barrel cacti.

In search of this year’s wildflowers, I went to Lizard Wash in very late March, and found a few of those beautiful beavertails — but only one in bloom with a few others promising to burst open within another month.

But this year does not seem a banner year for desert wildflowers. Botanist Cathy Rose reported for the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association that this year, “plants are very small, underdeveloped, (with) small and fewer flower heads, sparse on the ground.”

Still, if you look very closely, you will see a lot of detail. That’s surely one of the amazing attractions of the desert — the landscape may appear monochromatically beige to many but if you are willing to examine it closely, the tiny blooms and the striated rocks make it far more interesting than at first blush.

Lizard Wash

Before you go: Download a map of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park from the state parks page. But this map does not show the east and west forks; find that detailed map in either Jerry Schad’s “Afoot and Afield San Diego County,” or in Robin Halford’s “Hiking in Anza-Borrego Desert, Over 100 Half-Day Hikes.”

Trailhead: Park just off Highway 78, near the 75.9 mile marker, about 17 miles east of Julian and about 6.1 miles east of Scissors Crossing, where you’ll see a posted sign for “Lizard Wash.”

Distance: I covered about 4.5 miles round-trip, but you may add another 1.5 miles total if you continue up the west fork

The most abundant bloomers were the chuparosas, which appear almost lifeless most of the year with their pale green branches until they start sending out red trumpet-like blossoms in winter. Chuparosa is Spanish for hummingbird, which these long flowers definitely attract.

The other biggest show came from the purple mat, a very low-growing tiny purple bloom that spreads all over the desert floor here. And ocotillos were sending forth lots of their bright orange blossoms, too.

Another fascinating bloomer is the desert agave, sometimes called the century plant, which sends up just one tall yellow-flowering stock that can soar 12 feet above the 2- or 3-foot-high plant. Like most agaves, it’s monocarpic, meaning it dies after it sends up its single flowering stalk. But it may take from eight to 20 years for that stalk to appear, and it has spread lots of babies around it.

Lizard Wash is usually a good bet for wildflowers just because it’s a wash — where more water occurs than other parts of the desert. The Lizard Wash trail follows an old rocky dirt road just off Highway 78. This road is not really negotiable for anything but very high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles, so I parked just off the highway and started hiking on the road.

After about 0.8 miles, the road forks with the main road, Lizard Canyon East Fork, continuing to the left and an even rockier road, Lizard Canyon West Fork, heading right. The right fork should be traveled only on foot.

I stayed on the east fork, going a total of about 1.5 miles until the road ends and the narrow wash itself becomes hard to navigate. Then I retraced my steps and took that west fork road, which dissipates into random trails after about half a mile up the rocky canyon.

Lizard Wash offers a lovely foray into the high desert — its elevation here starts at about 1,540 feet and goes up to over 2,500 feet. Views back to the north extend to 4,573-foot-high Pinyon Ridge all the way to 8,716-foot Toro Peak in the Santa Rosa Mountains.

I liked hiking this wide road in spring because it’s easier to see snakes. I didn’t see any, but often the rattlesnakes come out of their winter hibernation a bit ornery in March, April and May, so I prefer to avoid those rocky, narrow trails that snakes like so much.

“Reptiles are abundant in deserts because the high average temperatures and the intense sunshine found in North American desert are ideal for ‘cold-blooded’ animals,” wrote Chris Smith in “Reptiles of the Anza-Borrego Desert” for the California State Parks in 2000.

“All reptiles are ectotherms,” he added, meaning they use heat sources outside their bodies to maintain preferred temperatures, and with all that heat in the desert, they thrive there. When a lizard or snake crawls out of its refuge in the morning, it immediately tries to maximize absorption from the sun, Smith said. Then it moves back and forth between sun and shade —— like the inside of a rock crevice —— to regulate that temperature.

Smith said the most frequently seen lizard in Anza-Borrego is the zebra-tailed lizard, which is also North America’s fastest lizard, sprinting at up to 18 mph. Western whiptails are another commonly seen lizard. “Like most lizards, they have a breakaway tail that wiggles violently when pulled off,” said Smith. “This remarkable adaptation allows the lizard to distract the attacking predator long enough to escape.”

Even in Lizard Wash, I didn’t see any lizards, though they are usually most active in the daytime.

The sidewinder is one of four species of rattlesnakes found the Anza-Borrego, along with red-diamond rattlesnake, speckled rattlesnake and western rattlesnake.

“During the warm months of late spring and summer, rattlesnakes are completely nocturnal, preferring moonless nights for stalking their prey,” said Smith.

Even so, I like to make noise with my hiking stick to help me warn snakes to slither away before I even see them.